title: Respective interest of T2 mapping and diffusion tensor imaging in assessing porcine knee cartilage with MR at 3 Teslas.
abstract: Non-invasive quantitative assessment of articular cartilage integrity is essential for early detection and evaluation of osteoarthritis (OA) and for the follow-up of stem-cell-driven cartilage engineering. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of exploiting diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) on porcine knee joints with a clinical magnetic resonance (MR) scanner to extract micro-structural information in order to complement biochemical information quantified by T2 maps. We propose an MR protocol for quantifying T2 and cartilage microstructure with diffusion MR on a clinical scanner. Preliminary results were obtained on four pig knee joints using a 3 T GE clinical MRI scanner and an 8-channel knee coil array. The measured cartilage volume, T2 values, apparent diffusion coefficient and fractional anisotropy (FA) of femoral and tibial cartilage were respectively 9.8/2.3 mm2, 67.0/56.1 ms, 1.3/1.3×10-3 mm2/s and 0.4/0.3. This new protocol has the potential to be combined in vivo with quantitative assessment of both cartilage degradation and restoration in osteoarthritis.
authors.affiliation: IADI, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France U947, INSERM, Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Bailiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roeder
authors.forename: Pierre-André
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Vuissoz
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gillet
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Felblinger
authors.forename: Marine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beaumont
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pinzano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging / Q000379:methods; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005269:Femur / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods; D007596:Joints / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D023421:Models, Animal; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000473:pathology; D013552:Swine